Putting up a good front

Renovation an exterior can add character--and pay off when it's time to sell

November 19, 2004|By Darci Smith, Special to the Tribune. Tribune staff

When Veronica Savoie first glimpsed the house that would become her home in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood, she had an inkling that it wasn't what it appeared to be. "It was just a regular block stucco house," she recalled. But, "I knew when I saw it, that it wasn't."

For one thing, Savoie noticed a strange ridge jutting out from under the stucco. And after poking around behind some lath on the rotted enclosed porch, she discovered a beautifully designed beam.

Her hunch had been correct. As it turns out, the 1860s home was once a wooden Victorian with an ornate, open-air porch. The house had been slathered with stucco during the Gothic Revival period of the 1920s, and the porch walled in, Savoie said. To bring back character to the house's non-descript exterior, she and her husband, Jim, decided to give the porch a face-lift.

In the age of teardowns, exterior face-lifts aren't exactly common but can do wonders for a home and its neighborhood. They can range from the renovation of a singular element, such as Savoie's front porch, to a whole house makeover that--besides maintaining the same footprint--hardly resembles the original structure.

After tearing the lath, wire and stucco from the porch, the Savoies found that most of the "detailed features were in really great shape," Veronica Savoie said. Unfortunately, the beams, while well preserved, had been cut in half when the porch was originally converted. Because the beams were partially in tact, a mill was able to replicate the original work.

"It was worth restoring," said Veronica Savoie, who worked with master carpenter Colm McCann to rebuild the porch over 1 1/2 months.

Not only do exterior face-lifts provide curb appeal, they can significantly add to the value of a home, according to Darlene Little, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and senior vice president of Rubloff Residential Properties. Both factors are important when it comes time to put a home on the market, she added.

"The first impression is what hits you," explained Little. In other words, if the house's exterior isn't visually appealing, the interior will be tainted before someone even steps in the door.

Little should know. She says she recently gave her own home--a brick row house in Lincoln Park's landmark Burling Row House District--a makeover because it was "tired" and "stuck out like a sore thumb" among its attached neighbors. She had the old pale-blue paint removed, exposing the brick, and the house's graying wooden cornice, molding and trim were scraped and repainted white. New windows were added. Plus, Little painted her front door from black to a more arresting red and installed new door hardware, a shiny brass knocker and handle. In addition, she landscaped the front yard with pavers, plants and flowerpots. The once plain house now has a front that's warm and inviting, Little said.

Also, Little's row home now fits in with the neighboring houses--an important point to take into consideration during an exterior renovation, she said.

Fitting in doesn't necessarily mean taking a cookie-cutter approach, however. A graphic designer, Cheryl Bulger played with color, texture and scale to give her Lincoln Square house a face-lift. "We wanted to give it a little bit of personality so it had a sense of who we were and gave the block some interest," said Bulger.

Living in the city provides the perfect landscape for such a project, she noted, since neighborhoods are eclectic.

The Bulgers hired Foster Dale Architects of Chicago to design both an exterior and interior renovation. Working with an architect is essential, according to Bulger, because "you can bring in things that you've seen that you like."

New pillars and columns, as well balusters with a Mission feel, helped transform the home. A diverse color palette, ranging from okra to redwood to soft green, gave the home a Painted Ladies feel, as did varying materials, from board-and-batten siding on the top quarter of the house to traditional horizontal siding on the bottom.

Varying materials also gave the home's exterior more visual interest, added Bulger.

Although people often are cautious about major home changes because a home is a large item to mess up, Bulger hopes that others will see what is possible and have the courage to do something different.

"We're just very happy with our outcome," said Bulger. "It's tasteful and unique enough to reflect our personality but blends in nicely with the city."

Another consideration when planning a face-lift to a facade is a home's style, says Dan Zolkowski, owner of Artiflex, a Chicago building company. By studying homes built in the same period, you can get clues as to what materials or details to pick for your exterior renovation, he adds.

For years, Zolkowski wasn't happy with the view from his Lincoln Square bungalow--specifically, the characterless house across the street with its white aluminum siding and "very ugly" metal columns.